Fly On My Own
by Hiccup's Flower
Summary: AU. Hiccup never shot down Toothless, but he still befriended him. Harboring Toothless is not Hiccup's biggest secret, and the big secret that he has, changes not only his life, but his position in the village and with the dragons, including his own. ADOPTED FROM keotey1228
1. Chapter 1

This is Berk. It's twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery.

My village. In a word, sturdy. It's been here for seven generations but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests.

See, most places have mice, or mosquitos, but we have: dragons!

I looked outside but quickly shut the door when a dragon blew fire at my house. I opened the door and ran back out and through the village, avoiding the other Vikings.

Most people would leave. Not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues.

My name's Hiccup. Great name, I know. But, it's not the worst. Parents believe that hideous names will frighten off gnomes and trolls. Like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that.

I fell onto the ground and another Viking screamed in my face. "AAAAHHHH! Mornin'!" Then he ran off. As I kept running, other Vikings who knew me were calling, "What are you doing here?!" and "Get back inside!"

I ran right onto a larger path and almost got smoldered by a dragon if a hand hadn't grabbed me. I recognized the "Hiccup!" anywhere. "What is he doin' out aga- what are you doing out!? Get inside!" He yelled around him, but then addressed me. Before waiting for an answer, he shoved me into the blacksmith's shop.

That's Stoick the Vast, chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head clean off its shoulders. Do I believe it? Yes I do.

"What do we got?" He called.

"Gronkles, Nadders, Zipplebacks, Oh, and Hoark saw a Monstrous Nightmares."

"Any Night Furies?"

"None so far."

"Good." Catapults were launched as I ran inside.

The blacksmith, long-time friend, saw me. "Nice of you to join the party. I'd thought you'd been carried off."

I put on my apron and picked up one of the recently mended weapons. "What, who, me? Nah. I'm way too muscular for their taste. They wouldn't know what to do with all this." I posed and showed off my fake muscles.

"Well, they need toothpicks, don't they?" He joked back. Vikings were loading my arms with broken and damaged weapons and I was handing out new ones.

The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber. I've been his apprentice ever since I was little. Well, littler.

"We move to the lower defenses. We counterattack with the catapults." Stoick and a few other Vikings run out.

See? Old village, lots and lots of new houses.

"Fire!"

That's Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and…

I stared out the window at the other kids I knew who got to be in the action, putting out fires.

…Astrid… Ah, their job is so much cooler.

"Eh…" Gobber picked me up by my tunic and pulled me away from the window.

"Oh, come on," I begged. "Let me out. Please? I need to make my mark."

"Oh, you made plenty of marks. All in the wrong places."

"Please, two minutes. I'll kill a dragon. My life will get infinitely better. I might even get a date."

Gobber started naming all my faults. "You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe, you can't even throw one of these…" He picked up a bola which a Viking took and threw at a Gronkle.

"Okay fine. But this, will throw it for me." I backed up to my new invention, which accidently threw a bola at an approaching Viking.

"See? Now this right here is what I'm talking about!"

I stuttered. "Mild calibration issue, and what about my wing idea? Make wings for human use so we can level out the battlefield?"

"Hiccup. If you ever want to get out there and fight dragons you need to stop all… this." He moved his arms to point at me.

"But you just pointed to all of me."

"Yes. That's it. Stop being all of you."

"Ohhhh…" I smiled a small smile.

"Ohhhh…" Gobber repeated, smiling too. "Yeah.

"You sir are playing a dangerous game," I joked. "Keeping this much, raw Viking-ness contained. There will be consequences!"

"I'll take my chances," He gave me a sword. "Sword. Sharpen. Now."

One day, I'll get out there, because killing a dragon is everything around here. A Nadder head would surely get me at least noticed. Gronkles are tough. Taking down one of those would definitely get me a girlfriend. A Zippleback, exotic. Two heads, twice the status.

"They found the sheep!"

"Concentrate! Fire over the lower bank!"

Then, there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire.

"Reload!"

But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one's ever seen. We call it the…

"Night Fury!"

"Get down!" Everyone ducked as a purple fire blast shot down a base with a catapult. I looked out the window.

This thing never steals food, never shows itself, and never misses. No one has ever killed a Night Fury. That's why I'm going to be the first.

"Man the fort, Hiccup. They need me out there." Gobber grabbed a weapon and walked to the exit. "Stay. Put. There. Ya know what I mean." With a yell, he ran off into battle.

I followed directly after with my new invention and ran out, as Vikings were yelling at me to get back inside. I got to an open filed away from the main battle and quickly set up my bola-launcher.

I looked into the dark sky, nearly quiet except for the yelling of a dragon.

"Come on," I whispered. "Give me something to shoot at. Give me something to shoot at." I heard the dragon coming closer, and I shot at it after it blew a fireball. The machine threw a bola but also knocked me back.

I stood up and looked around for the falling of a dragon, but saw nothing. I saw the tower was on fire from the Night Fury, but no Night Fury. I yelled out in anguish before plopping back down. I put my head in my knees in defeat.

It was quiet until I felt a harsh tug from under my arms. I looked up to see the bottom of the neck of a black dragon, nearly invisible against the night sky. I yelled and flailed, trying to get out of its arms.

It flew fast, and it flew far across the sky. It hit one more tower before seeming to fly to the other side of the island to get away. I screamed louder, knowing it was trying to get away with me.

"Hiccup!" I couldn't see the ground, but I felt a flaming rock shot at us from a catapult. I ducked as if it would help, but I knew it wouldn't.

I felt my skin singe as the dragon above me growled. I felt its hold around my shoulders lessen, and I fell to the ground.


	2. Chapter 2

I opened my eyes and sat up; sure I was going to be face to face with the dragon that kidnapped me. I screamed when I saw the one that was touching my arms, seeing that it was not a small dragon nibbling at me like I had expected.

Gobber was wrapping a cool washcloth when he dropped it and laughed. "Glad to see you up, Hiccup."

"What, what...?"

"Well, you were almost carried off by a dragon. Shot it down with a catapult. Got some nasty burns, but it never touched ya. Looked for the dragon afterwards, but couldn't find it. Unsure of what it was either."

"A Night Fury…" I muttered.

"Very lucky for you that you didn't get fully captured. Might have yourself turned into a full dragon."

"The myth… I thought you didn't believe it..?"

Gobber smiled a toothy smile and 'pshaw'ed "Eh, I don't. How could it be possible to turn into a dragon just because they capture you? Magic?"

I smiled a half-smile before frowning. "What if I do..?"

Gobber raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "Do what? Turn into a dragon? Hah. If the myth were true, I'd say you'd be safe. It never carried you off."

I nodded, but regretted it. I had a major headache, but I smiled to show Gobber I was fine.

.:-*-:.

"Pain. Love it." I said as I entered the arena, overhearing the other teens' conversations.

"Ugh, who let him in?" Snotlout was obviously telling me how stupid I was. I didn't care. All I cared about was my headache. I felt like my head was growing an extra brain. It was making me temporarily deaf.

Gobber started to shuffle me along and threw me in line with the others. I only heard half of what he said before he opened the cage.

"What do you need when fighting a dragon?"

"A doctor?" I asked, dumbly.

"Plus 5 speed?" Fishlegs.

"A shield." Astrid ran over to the shields along with the others, and I followed close behind, still wary and dazed.

I zoned for only a second and Gobber shoved a shield in my hand and pushed me back out. I almost fell, but I caught myself. And dropped the axe.

Gobber instructed us to start pounding on our shields to make noise to distract the dragon. It also distracted me, and made my headache grow bigger.

Suddenly, Astrid and I were the only ones left. "Guess likes it's just you and me."

"Nope, just you." She ran off and I turned my head to see the Gronkle fire at me. I dropped my shield and ran. It backed me into a wall and almost shot its last fireball at me when Gobber pulled it away, its fireball hitting the wall next to me.

He put it back in its cage and started talking to us, but between the shock of coming that close to a dragon so close to almost being captured by one, and my headache, I only heard the ending to his speech.

"A dragon will always," He leaned in towards me. "Always, go for the kill."


	3. Chapter 3

Walking into the Great Hall for dinner with the rest of the guys, I couldn't help but dread them seeing me. I grabbed my plate and sulked off to a different table. I could hear them mocking me about what I did wrong during training training today. I wasn't ignoring them, but my ears felt cloudy. Frankly, my whole body felt weird. I didn't think too much of it since my first training went more than horribly.

"Hiccup?" I nearly jumped out of my skin as Gobber put his hand on my shoulder. All my senses are off because of how weak I feel.

"Sorry, Gobber... just a little sore." He nods in understanding and goes on to explain that we're all supposed to read the Book of Dragons. All the others left, leaving only Astrid and I sitting at the tables.

"So I guess we get to share-"

Astrid cut me off. "Read it." She got out of her seat and left the Great Hall.

"Oh good, all for me, then?" I awkwardly shook it off as I plopped down. Putting my head in my hands, I could almost hear my head pounding. Deciding I better get the book out of the way, I started to flip through the first few pages. "Gronckle, Nadder, Zippleback... deadly, kill on sight... kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight... a blank page?"

I glanced up at the top to see that it was that of a Night Fury. All the data collected from the species was unknown. I kept flipping through until I got to a page titled 'The Legend'.

"I didn't know that the Legend was in here..." I started to read every word.

"Legend has it that if a dragon carries you off, you'll end up sprouting a pair of wings and turning into a dragon of the same species of your captor. This is how dragons are born; out of people, not eggs like other reptiles. Your human mind disintegrates and in place forms a mindset of killing and destruction. No memories are kept and you would then be just one of the dragons. Don't let one carry you off or you'll never be seen again."

The page ends and I groan in frustration. Why isn't there more? Why didn't "what happens when you are almost got carried off" make it into the legend?

"Take a deep breath. You're just sore... you are not turning into a dragon. It would've happened by now and besides, you weren't even completely carried off...you must have hit your head, yes, that's it." I nodded my head, content with the information I learned and the reasoning I made up myself.

Closing the book, I headed home.


	4. Chapter 4

_A Nadder paused in eating her fish to take a glance at me._

"_That's it, nice and easy, leave the talking fishbone alone…" I said. I really didn't want to engage the dragon._

_She took a step towards me._

_Knowing that I would never overpower her, I turned tail and fled. She chased, probably thinking this was some sort of game. Rocks kept getting in my way, and having the world's worst luck didn't help any with my overall clumsiness. Eventually, she managed to drive me to the edge of the cliff. Any time I turned to go the other way, she appeared in front of me. Man, she was good._

_She took a step closer. I took a step back. This process repeated, until I was literally about to fall. She stepped closer. _

_I seriously considered jumping, to save myself from being barbecued, but a searing pain stopped my entire train of thought. The Nadder turned and ran, finding a screaming fishbone no longer appetizing._

_My back felt like it was being sliced open with rusty Outcast axes. The blood running down my arms and torso meant that something was going on._

_Unable to see, or even stand through the haze of pain, I fell backwards._

And shot bolt upright. Legs? Check. Arms? Check. Smooth, unruptured back? Check. I had been having dreams, or rather nightmares, like these, ever since I was almost carried off. I couldn't make head or tail of the situation, but I assumed that it was just trauma. Apparently I had been terrified of dragons as a baby, and nothing had really changed.

I decided a breath of fresh air would help clear my head, hopefully literally. The headache was back, and stronger than ever.

I clambered out of bed, and walked carefully down the stairs.

The great outdoors did help a little bit, but not much. I wandered around for a little bit, feeling drowsy and mopey. I let my feet take me where they would, not even paying attention to my surroundings. Until I slammed into a tree. I took a better look around me and realized that I was in the middle of the woods, completely lost. Well, I guess I'd better walk around until I find something useful, or something I recognized.

The headache tripled.

I found a little wall of rock with a break down the middle, and it looked man-made, which meant it probably wasn't. I lurched forwards as fast as I could and-

BAM!

I tripped over a root, or a tree, or something, and flew a few feet- out to open air. I was falling, and from this height, I would break something, an arm, or a leg, probably.

The ground was not getting farther and farther, and I wasn't slowing down.

I landed hard on something black. It stopped my fall, stopped me from breaking anything. Then it hissed at me. Wait- hissed?

I had landed on a dragon. A Night Fury, to be exact.

"Okay, just- leave me alone… good dragon…"

**Do not talk to me like I am a dog! **Something said rather angrily.

I jumped and backed away. "You can talk?" I asked the black dragon. Luckily enough, the headache seemed to stop, although my hearing got fuzzier.

**We all can.**

"In Norse?"

**Think again, walking fishbone.**

"Hey! Hey, what happened to your tail? Is that why you can't leave?"

**Your nest mates shot a flaming boulder at me, to save you. I'm not invincible.**

Nothing weird here. Just an average conversation with a dragon. Dragon. Dragon? Well, this is an interesting development, I thought, as the shock of it all hit me. Dragon!

I fainted, with only hope to protect me from a real Night Fury.


	5. Not Actually A Chapter

NOT A CHAPTER!

I'm just writing to say that this story IS NOT FINISHED, just paused until I finish with FLYING WARSHIP.  
>I AM NOT DONE!<p>

Thank You!


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